Cover Lover Clay Aiken Playing Favorites On Summer Tour

It sounds crazy to say a singer who’s only been around a few years is returning to his roots, but that’s exactly the idea behind Clay Aiken’s just-announced summer tour.

Aiken, who rose to fame singing songs from his favorite artists on “American Idol,” is launching a covers tour featuring tunes from the ’50s through the ’90s.

“I made a prediction that everyone will be able to sing along to at least five songs, no matter when they grew up,” Aiken said in a statement. “There will be songs my mom likes and my grandparents like, and there are a lot of people who love the music of the ’70s. I like the ’80s, and we’re going to have a lot of fun with songs from the ’90s.”

The set list will range from Sam Cooke to Goo Goo Dolls covers, as well as doo-wop, Motown and Elvis Presley medleys. A few of Aiken’s already popular remakes, including Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Solitaire,” popularized by Neil Sedaka, will also be included.

“It’s a chance for people to remember where they were when they heard certain songs,” Aiken said in the statement. “This started out as a show just to have some fun with, and as I got more excited about singing these songs, it became a bigger show. … [Although] the production will be simple because the real story is the music.”

Aiken will sprinkle in a few songs from 2003’s Measure of a Man and preview songs from the upcoming follow-up, which he will record this fall.

The 25-city tour, Aiken’s fifth since finishing second to Ruben Studdard on “Idol,” will kick off July 28 in Toms River, New Jersey, and wrap up September 1 in Atlantic City. Aiken will perform three of the songs in New York’s Bryant Park on July 29 for “Good Morning America.”

Concertgoers are encouraged to bring their cell phones and text-messaging devices so they can participate in concert activities, such as posting their own messages on screens in the venue.